Cruelty
by Spottedpaw13
Summary: A one-shot about Brightheart.


**Yay! I'm off writing break! That's good, right?  
>Not when you're suffering from writer's block. I added a chapter to a story I'm four chapters ahead on, then went to start a story, wrote the first two words in the first chapter, and just sat there, wondering what to type. I know what happens, but apparently my brain decided not to tell me what to write, so...here I am. I decided that if I'm suffering from writer's block, I gotta make myself write. What better cure for writer's block than a themed one-shot is there? Nothing, I tell you. Besides, I've been drawing way too much lately.<strong>

* * *

><p>Cruelty.<p>

Why must all suffer at the hands of those who are cruel?

They're savages. Emotionless. Preying on the sadness of others. They enjoy your sadness and your suffering, and laugh when you try to fight back. They take advantage of your ignorance, and every chance they get, they point out every mistake you make and laugh and point and tease you.

Why? Why must they make others suffer this way? Why can't they see they're tearing their victims apart? Why don't they care?

And the rant needs to end here.

Not everyone who is cruel is like this.

No one needs to laugh and be a jerk in order to be cruel.

All they need to do is have the right timing. Wait until you're in a living nightmare, and then make you remember it every day for the rest of your life, even more than you already would have.

There is a simple way to do this. Wait until the worst thing that could happen does happen to you, and then give you...

A name.

One simple name. The worst name you could possibly be given. You'll never forget what's happen to you, but now, every time someone says your name, every time someone _speaks_...you remember.

What's in a name?

When it comes to a cruel name...everything's in a name. Everything and more.

* * *

><p>Lostface sighed. Why did life have to be so cruel?<p>

The past few moons had been some of the worst moons of Lostface's life. They were also some of the best, but that was a different story.

It'd been bad enough when she'd faced the dogs with Swiftpaw. It was bad enough that she was horrible scarred and that every cat she met would flinch away from her face in shock until she died. It was even bad enough that Swiftpaw died. Swiftpaw's death would've been...well, worse, but he'd gone down exactly the way he would've wanted, fighting for his Clan to the death.

It was what happened after the dog fight that made these past moons unbearable.

Lostface was sure she shouldn't have lived. She was practically dead when Cloudtail and Fireheart found her. It might have even been better if she'd died...Lostface wasn't sure how she would go on, seeing every cat scared by her scars, wondering what in the name of StarClan could've possible happened, kits screaming as they ran from her face that would surely appear in their worst nightmares...

It was horrible.

But it got worse.

Lostface was only an apprentice when she faced the dogs. No, her name wasn't Lostpaw, and she wasn't born as Lostkit. Before she faced the dogs, she was Brightpaw, Whitestorm's proud apprentice. But after Cloudtail brought her back from the brink of death, Bluestar gave her her warrior name. She should've been proud...but who would be proud of the name Lostface?

Bluestar was still sure she would've died when Lostface was named a warrior. Lostface was given her name to take to StarClan, so that StarClan would see her and remember how they had abandoned Bluestar and ThunderClan...maybe even all the Clans. That's what Bluestar said, anyway.

How was Bluestar so sure StarClan had abandoned them anyway?

That was a question to think about another time.

Lostface sighed once more. She didn't think she could take the cruelty of life much more. After enduring the cruelty of the dog fight, her scars, her name, and the memories she would always have from fighting the dogs, nothing seemed worth it anymore.

She'd never be a warrior again. That's what Fireheart and Cinderpelt thought, anyway. It'd be difficult to hunt and fight with only one eye.

These past moons had been too cruel...

"Hey," Cloudtail mewed cheerfully to Lostface as he entered the medicine cat den to visit her. "How are you doing today?"

Suddenly, life couldn't get much better than it was now that Cloudtail was here.

* * *

><p><strong>Apparently this one-shot must be what Lostface is thinking about in one of her more depressing moments after the dog fight with Swiftpaw...and then Cloudtail appears and makes everything happy because I couldn't let this end on a sad note. I had to make Brightheart happy again.<br>I think the books mention that Cloudtail never left Brightheart's side while she was recovering (you get away with stuff like that when your uncle is the deputy) but Cloudtail has to make dirt and eat sometime. That's my excuse, anyway. Either that or dawn patrol.  
>Hopefully this cured my writer's block. <strong>


End file.
